Hand holding and Raising during the "Our Father"

[wupsie50]

I thank God for the flue season every winter. That way you can gently decline without hurting anyone’s feelings.

 

[snuffy]

Just have to get my 2 cents in here.
The first time I ever saw a whole church hold hands thru the Our Father was in Medjugorje. It was an awesome experience…It was the first time I ever felt…the oneness of the Church…The way we’re suppose to be!!!
The Our Father has not one “I” in it… It’s Our Father, NOT “my” Father…

Some say the ‘oneness’ is at Communion time…I think this is naive. After all, how can we be one at Communion time when some of us receive in the state of mortal sin???

Some say ‘we can’t change the Church rules.’? What happened to kneeling at Communion? What happened to only the priest handing out Communion? AND WHAT HAPPENED TO RECEIVING COMMUNION ON THE TONGUE???
Now, I left the Church when all these rules were abandoned…HOW SAD!!!
After being away for over 20 yrs. and have returned, my heart aches at Communion time…
About a year ago as I watched people walking up to Receive Our Lord, I was given a bit of a revelation… It was like cows walking up to the altar…with no reverence…and putting Our Lord in their mouths…while stradling down the aisle…I felt soooo sorry for Our Lord…how he must be shedding tears to see this…And you guys are worried about how he would feel about holding hands thru the Our Father!!!

As for me and my family…We hold hands thru the Our Father…noone else in our church does…I receive Communion only by the priest…and I receive on the tongue…

Snuffy

 

[OhioBob]

snuffy:

Just have to get my 2 cents in here.
The first time I ever saw a whole church hold hands thru the Our Father was in Medjugorje. It was an awesome experience…It was the first time I ever felt…the oneness of the Church…The way we’re suppose to be!!!
The Our Father has not one “I” in it… It’s Our Father, NOT “my” Father…

Some say the ‘oneness’ is at Communion time…I think this is naive. After all, how can we be one at Communion time when some of us receive in the state of mortal sin???

Some say ‘we can’t change the Church rules.’? What happened to kneeling at Communion? What happened to only the priest handing out Communion? AND WHAT HAPPENED TO RECEIVING COMMUNION ON THE TONGUE???
Now, I left the Church when all these rules were abandoned…HOW SAD!!!
After being away for over 20 yrs. and have returned, my heart aches at Communion time…
About a year ago as I watched people walking up to Receive Our Lord, I was given a bit of a revelation… It was like cows walking up to the altar…with no reverence…and putting Our Lord in their mouths…while stradling down the aisle…I felt soooo sorry for Our Lord…how he must be shedding tears to see this…And you guys are worried about how he would feel about holding hands thru the Our Father!!!

As for me and my family…We hold hands thru the Our Father…noone else in our church does…I receive Communion only by the priest…and I receive on the tongue…

Snuffy

Snuffy, I appreciate the sincerity of your comments, and I agree with some of them too.

But it continues to be frustrating that so few people seem to appreciate the point of this whole “hand-holding vs non-hand-holding” thing. It has nothing to do with holding hands.

The point is that arbitrary changes are made in some individual liturgical practices because people think it is “a better way to do things” and then those arbitrary changes are generalized to become part of the broader liturgy for everyone. Followed by those who don’t agree with the adaptation being criticised for not going along for the ride.

The point is that individuals are not permitted to adapt the Church’s liturgical celebration to meet their own ideas of what would be _________ (insert your sentiment here - “better, more communal, more reverent, happier, cooler, more colorful, quicker, faster” - the list is endless).

As I said before, I don’t care if someone’s personal piety moves them to hold hands or not. If it makes them feel closer to God and more a part of a Catholic communion, then go for it. Knock yourself out.

It has nothing to do with holding hands. If Rome decides officially that hand holding is to be part of the universal liturgy, I will be the first one to reach out and touch someone. Until then, I prefer my Mass as officially defined and protected by the Church. And the Church tells me I have a “right” to expect that pure liturgy without regional bells and whistles and touchy-feelies added for local color or happy-happy feelings.

And by the way, those things that you complained about - “What happened to kneeling at Communion? What happened to only the priest handing out Communion? AND WHAT HAPPENED TO RECEIVING COMMUNION ON THE TONGUE???” - all probably started because some folks decided that their way was a better way than the Church’s way. I think it illustrates the point perfectly.

However, I am thankful that nobody decided that group belching would promote community among the faithful during Mass. That would really be pandemonium.

Blessings.

 

[snuffy]

Ohio Bob:
How I wish the reputation system was still around…I’m very impressed with your response. It was a kind way to tell me I’m wrong, and you’re the first to responsed to me with kindness.
I’d just like to respond to one thing you said at the end about “touchy feelly”. Holding hands with EVERYONE throughout the Lord’s Prayer had nothing to do with touchy, feely…as I said it was the first time I really felt that everyone in the Church was truly one…(I guess it was a little feely…ha ha ) but Jesus said that we should be one, so that experience will always stay with me…because that’s the way we should be.
Again, thank you for disagreeing with me with kindness.
Jeanette

 

[OhioBob]

snuffy:

Ohio Bob:
How I wish the reputation system was still around…I’m very impressed with your response. It was a kind way to tell me I’m wrong, and you’re the first to responsed to me with kindness.
I’d just like to respond to one thing you said at the end about “touchy feelly”. Holding hands with EVERYONE throughout the Lord’s Prayer had nothing to do with touchy, feely…as I said it was the first time I really felt that everyone in the Church was truly one…(I guess it was a little feely…ha ha ) but Jesus said that we should be one, so that experience will always stay with me…because that’s the way we should be.
Again, thank you for disagreeing with me with kindness.
Jeanette

I’m glad you didn’t take offense. I was trying to make a general point and just used your post as a stepping off point.

When I talked about “touchy-feelie” things, I actually wasn’t thinking about hand-holding, but rather some of the other odd things that I heard about anectdotally from various Masses (dancing, hugging, applause, etc.).

If holding hands enriches your faith experience, good for you. I would never criticize anyone’s methods of strengthening their personal piety. God knows I can use all the help I can get with mine.

If you were in my Church, I might even hold your hand if you offered it, just to be a good neighbor.

By the way, just to prove I’m not a total renegade, our Bishop has decided that we all should pray the Lord’s prayer in the orans position (hands raised :bowdown2: ). I don’t particularly like doing it (again, not because of anything against the orans, just because it is an adaptation and it creates unusual situations vs the gestures of the priest at that point of the Mass), but I am gritting my teeth and doing it in deference to the authority of the Bishop.

See. I’m not an ultra-conservative neanderthal after all . :tiphat:

Blessings.

 

[puzzleannie]

my brother just sent me a nifty gift, 2 bamboo back-scratchers shaped like little hands, he says to keep them in my purse, pull them out for the OF and hold them, and people can just grab the little hands. It was quite an adjustment moving here to the Hispanic SoTex area and getting used to the usual greeting, which is grab the forearm and kiss the persons cheek. I am sure if the GIRM restored the Kiss of Peace they would be all for it. Being German and English which means being raised NO PDA - no public displays of affection-- it is hard to accept. The Agnus Dei is a welcome relief because the exchange of peace takes a long time, altar servers rush down to hug their families in the pews, the priest goes after everybody in the first pew and halfway down the center aisle, takes the EEMS several minutes to get to their stations since they have been passing the peace to all their friends and relations.

Now we can look forward to the beginning of cold and flu season, people coughing, hacking and sneezing into their kleenex all through mass then shoving their hand for you to shake right before you will be receiving communion in that hand. Our church looks like a blizzard hit it and it takes 15 minutes after winter masses to pick up all the used kleenex.